With the increase in demand for broadband communications and services, telecommunication service providers are constantly challenged to provide the fastest and most reliable service to their customers, including increasing network performance. Not surprisingly, many service providers employ label switch networks as a means of reducing bottlenecks and increasing performance in a network. Label switch networks feature various interconnected routers that forward data to one another according to one or more predetermined network paths. By way of this approach, data packets are labeled based on their characteristics and subsequently forwarded along a particular network path per the corresponding label.
Traditionally, the process for configuring a new router into an existing label switch network has involved execution of a router device login, network path set-up/interconnection build, functional check and security verification. This procedure must be performed, often manually, for each of the routers within the network to ensure proper establishment of label switch paths between the newly added router and the existing routers of the network. Consequently, this process can be time consuming and labor intensive to carry out, especially for larger networks featuring multiple routers.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach that provides for effective and efficient configuration of label switch paths within a label switch network.